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5th Person Pleads Guilty To Smuggling Guns To Puerto Rico

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 26, 2008

TAMPA - Hundreds of AK-47-type weapons were smuggled from Florida into Puerto Rico more than four years by a ring of 15 people, according to documents on file in U.S. District Court.

Five of the defendants have pleaded guilty - the latest Wednesday morning - to participation in the ring, which purchased guns from legitimate gun dealers in Florida from 2004 into 2007, then shipped them to Puerto Rico disguised as other items, the court documents state.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Florida is one of the top states in the nation for the illegal export of guns. Within Florida last year, Tampa was the fourth-ranked source of illegal guns used in crimes and traced by law enforcement, behind Miami, Jacksonville and Orlando. St. Petersburg ranked eighth, behind Pensacola and West Palm Beach.

ATF Director Michael J. Sullivan, who was in Tampa on Wednesday for a conference of women in federal law enforcement, said the bureau traces between 250,000 and 280,000 guns a year for law enforcement, although not all agencies ask for gun traces.

He said every gun recovered in a crime should be traced.

"The weapon has a story to tell," he said.

Angel Colon-Rohena, 45, of Puerto Rico, entered a guilty plea Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara to a charge of conspiracy to traffic illegal weapons.

He faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in federal prison.

His brother and sister-in-law, David Colon-Rohena and Magda Colon, already have pleaded guilty, as have Joel Quintana-Ortiz and William Lopes Pereira.

A 54-page federal indictment in the case lists 25 Florida gun dealers - in Port Richey, New Port Richey, Hudson, Palm Harbor, Tampa, Spring Hill and other cities as far away as Miami.

It accuses the defendants of purchasing as many as 20 weapons a day - eight from a single dealer - while falsely claiming they were for personal use.

According to Angel Colon-Rohena's plea agreement, members of the ring purchased the weapons on behalf of Melvin Omar Velez-Santos with the help of Quintana-Ortiz, a felon who cannot legally buy or possess firearms.

They "were acting on behalf of individuals in Puerto Rico who wanted to receive the firearms in furtherance of their criminal activity in Puerto Rico," the plea agreement states.

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